In know you're also familiar with "Cortex" Marvel Hero... how does it compare with Sentinels? Are there are any parts you'd port from one game system to the other if you had a magic wand?
The general range of abilities is similar, but the differences in the core mechanic are profound.
MHRP/Cortex Prime Heroic, you're rolling a pool which varies in size:
- 1 Affiliation
- 1 Distinction
- 1 power from first powerset
- 0-1 power from second powerset (if any, fairly common)
- 0-1 power from third powerset, if any (very rare)
- 0-1 from the mundane skills, if one applies
- 0-1 from an asset
- 0-1 from a scene asset
- 0-1 from a foe's damage
- 0-many bought with plot points to grab extra powers, skills, or assets.
Powersets need a bit of explanation: they're a themed group of powers, but generally, only one at a time is used. (The sets also have modifiers: SFX and Limits. SFX are reusable; Limits are one use then penalty.)
So, a pool of 3 to 10-ish dice. Most of which will be d6, d8, and d10...
Roll the pool, pull the 1's out, decide if you take the PP for the GM imposing complications. Pick two for the success total. the remaining die with the most sides becomes the effect - if creating an asset, it's the die size; if doing damage, it's the minimum step marked. If you tried to do two things, each gets a separate effect die, provided you have dice left in the pool.
Most NPC supers have a very slightly abridged sheet. Minion types only get a dice rating as a group.
Also, the player turn is described as one or two panels... direct correspondence to comic books; in play, I find it feels more like the movies and 80's sat morning cartoons..
Meanwhile, in Sentinel Comics
powers are individual, but you get several, and use only one at a time.
Narrate until the GM calls for a roll ("to do it, do it!" mode), then pick the best fit power, best fit quality, and current status dice. The GM can set a difficulty level, but if using one of the special abilities on your sheet, the difficulty is already stated. Hard rolls are use lowest die; easy rolls are highest die, most rolls are middle die. Some special abilities use high+low or high+mid.
All actions use one of 7 moves; the five generic ones are attack, defend, boost, hinder, and overcome. The others are heal, minion maker, and summon; minion maker and summon are not on the standard list, but tied to the relevant special abilities; all three require an enabling special ability to be done.
The Status Die is based upon current hit points... but it's not always descending. Some heroes get stronger as they get hurt more, others get weaker, others still have the same die throughout.
Major villains have a slightly abridged sheet, but operate exactly like PCs.
Minor villains get a single die. When they take damage, if they can roll over it, no effect; if not, they step down. If the roll doubled is under the damage, they go pop right away.
Minions also get a single die... but damage is different: If they can beat the damage with their die, it steps down; if not, they pop.
Minor Villains can do any basic action, minions are often limited to one or two.
Boosts can be tangible things, situations, or even morale; same for hinders. These correspond to creating assets in MHRP.
Attacks, Defends, and Heals all use the kept die as the effect
Boosts, Hinders, and minion makers all use a result table. Summoners generally use the result as a number of a specified size of minion.
Also, many times, the environment has an action. Most of the time, really. It's an enemy in its own right.
Further, the scene has a progress track; whichever is closer to red, your status or the scene's, is which status die you use and whether or not you have access to your yellow and red special abilities.
One other element, one that throws some, is that when you're down, you aren't entirely out. You still get a turn, with access only to your Out Ability. It's tied to one of the char gen steps.
That's the other element Sentinel Comics has a structure of Roll and/or pick. It's often "roll X dice, keep 1 or 2 of them, summing the kept dice and looking on the table"... the number of dice is specified by the prior step, excepting the first, which is 2d10.
They feel very different due to the combination of how the core mechanics work, and how players and GMs are guided by the art in the books... SC often has a turn being 2 to 5 panels, one of which is a GM & Player panel; the others being the actions. MHRP is fairly clear that an action is one panel of action, and maybe a second of result. EG: the classic ① fist-in-motion, dialogue "It's Clobberin' Time!!!", and impact flash, ② Thing's opponent half-buried in some piece of scenery... and a nearby callout sidebar about the illo.
The equivalent in the SC rulebook would be ① player narrating "I'm running up, my fists balled, ready to... ② character in the shockwave of their fist... ③ GM and player discussing the roll, ④ the impact, and the dice in a split panel, Lt rolled 2, Damage was 5⑤ the stars over the lieutenant NPC with stars over his head imbeded in a nearby wall.
The difference in presentation has in fact affected how I as a GM run the two. And how I've explained them.
I like marvel for the freewheeling, let's make an asset, lots of dice... It also has lots of tradeoff choices. It's very common for players to declare (and do) two, sometimes 3 actions in a turn.
I like Sentinel for it's less defined character limits and needing no more than 3 standard poly sets. It also makes it really clear: ONE rolled action per turn. Narrate your actions until the GM stops you for a roll - a policy lifted from Apocalypse World (and thanks to Vincent in the Starter Kit)...
Which is better? Depends on my mood. And my players.
